A rare pink diamond is returning to public view in France nearly a century after it was stolen during an overnight raid.
The nine-carat, pear-shaped gemstone, known as the “Grand Condé,” is on display at the Condé Museum in the Château de Chantilly until 3 January. The exhibition marks the first time the diamond has been shown publicly since October 1926, when it was taken from the same castle.
A 1926 heist and an unusual recovery
During the 1926 robbery, the thieves concealed the precious gem inside a hollowed-out apple. The diamond was recovered just weeks later when a hotel maid attempted to eat the apple where the thieves were staying.
Mathieu Deldicque, the museum’s director, acknowledged that the apple story appears far-fetched but noted it received widespread newspaper coverage at the time.
When questioned about potential security risks following recent museum thefts in Europe, Deldicque declined to disclose the diamond’s insurance value to CNN. However, he stated that researchers conducted extensive academic study into the gem’s properties to make it uniquely identifiable. The exhibition features these analytical findings alongside previously unseen archive materials detailing the history and the 1926 theft.
Royal origins and history
The Grand Condé is one of the few royal jewels to survive the French Revolution. Its precise origins remain unknown, though it first appeared in a 1740 inventory compiled after the death of Louis Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, according to the Château de Chantilly.
The gemstone subsequently entered the collection of Queen Marie-Amélie of Bourbon-Sicily—wife of French King Louis Philippe I—and later passed to their son, Prince Henri of Orléans, the Duke of Aumale. The Duke bequeathed the diamond to the Institut de France, which owns the Château de Chantilly located 50km north of Paris, along with the thousands of artworks and manuscripts comprising the Musée Condé collection.
